EDITORIAL: Donation

There is nothing more selfless, more wonderful and altruistic than living organ donation — especially when that donation helps save the life of a stranger — and almost nothing scarier. But that is what Weston teen Will Corcoran needs to stay alive; he needs someone brave, healthy, and remarkably unselfish and kind to consider giving up part of his or her liver.

Living organ donation — undergoing surgery to remove all or a portion of an organ for transplant — is not without risks, not without pain, and not guaranteed to be without complications. But the reward is unspeakably gratifying. The reward is the opportunity to save the life of a boy who has done nothing but fight for his life from the day he was born.

The Corcoran family knows what sacrifice is. They have rallied around their son and brother for more than a decade, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to help fund cystic fibrosis reasearch, becoming involved locally, statewide and nationally in the battle to treat this fatal, debilitating disease, with the goal of eradicating it. Will’s mom, Bean, tried to donate a portion of her own liver to a CF patient, and when she was unable to do so for medical reasons, she donated a kidney to a stranger instead. She knows what a sacrifice it requires.

Living organ donation is not for everyone and cannot be entered into lightly or for any reason other than it feels like the right and only thing to do. Take a moment today to say a prayer for Will Corcoran and to look into your own heart to see if you might be the answer to his prayers.